Heavy armor: gains clout in urban combat.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

An ongoing debate within the U.S. Army is whether to revise its tactics and doctrine for the employment of heavy armored vehicles in urban areas.

Operations in Iraq prove that the current doctrine, which specifically dissuades the Army from bringing ranks into cities, should be rewritten, said Gen. B.B. Bell, the commander of the Army's forces in Europe.

"The utility of tanks in the city, not only from a protective envelope, but also from a capabilities perspective, is something that we relearned," Bell told National Defense. "I think we knew this in previous wars. So, we have to go re-look at our doctrine and make sure that we write our doctrine correctly for using armored platforms in cities."

In the current doctrine, crafted 20 years ago, "the fundamental precept was [that] the worst place where you can take a tank is in the city," Bell said in an interview during the 2004 Armor conference at Fort Knox, Ky.

"The general belief was that you'd be immediately engulfed with rocker-propelled grenades, [the tank] would be caught up in this terrible caldron of fires and, therefore, this was not an appropriate platform to operate in cities," he explained. "That has obviously proven to be a doctrine of exclusion that was not correct."

Stability and support operations have turned out more lethal than expected, he said, and therefore, the requirement for armored platforms, ranging from tanks to Stryker light armored vehicles and up-armored Humvees, "is as important as it has ever been and, perhaps, more so," he said.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Corps and the multi-national Corps in Iraq has required more tanks and Bradleys, according to Chief Master Sgt. William Gainey. "We are all beefing up," he said after a presentation at Fort Knox. "We had what we thought we needed, but it did not prove enough."

Officials at Fort Hood, Texas, were preparing last month to send 50 tanks to Iraq.

"One thing is for sure: to gain proximity to the enemy and survive his ambush attacks, having sufficient armor surrounding our forces--physically surrounding them--has proven vital," Bell said.

"Armored platforms do have a role in cities," he argued. "They have a role first to protect our infantry formations as they fight house to house. Then, they have a role is a support platform, or firing platform to defeat enemy forces in cities."

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